Air deflector for refrigerator cabinets



United States Patent C) 3,324,679 AIR DEFLECTOR FOR REFRIGERATOR CABINETS Louis D. Benasutti, Fairborn, and Orson V. Saunders,

Dayton, Ghio, assignors to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 6, 1966, Ser. No. 555,423 Claims. (Cl. 62-40-1) This invention pertains to an air deflector which will minimize sweating and heat transfer adjacent the door seal and the door of the refrigerator cabinets,

With the advent of forced air cooling systems for household refrigerator cabinets there is a tendency for greater heat transfer in places Where the insulation is not very effective. One of the critical points is adjacent the door seal. The forced circulation of cold air at high velocity adjacent the door seal causes a higher rate of heat transfer through and around the door seal frequently causing the adjacent external portions of the cabinet to be excessively cooled relative to the environment air causing external sweating or condensating of moisture and increased heat leak into the cabinet.

It is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive, effective arrangement for deflecting the circulating air away from the space between the door and door opening leading to the door seal.

It is another object of this invention to provide an inexpensive effective arrangement for deflecting circulating air away from the space between the door and the door opening leading to the door seal through the provision of an integral flange upon the breaker strip.

It is another object of this invention to provide an integral flange and groove upon the breaker strip in which the groove receives the adjacent edge of the inner liner and the flange projects to deflect circulating air away from the space between the door and the door opening.

These and other objects are attained in the form shown in the drawings in which air is forcibly circulated in heat transfer relation with the evaporating means and through the refrigerated compartments of a refrigerator cabinet. To prevent this air from circulating at high velocity in the space between the door and the door opening leading to the door seal I provide as an integral part of the breaker strip an air deflector in the form of an inwardly extending, generally L-shaped projection, extending all around the door opening and located between the storage compartment and the front of the space surrounding the periphery of the door within the door opening. This L-shaped projection rnay be shaped and curved so as to direct the flow of air into the space provided for the door shelves.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein preferred embodiments of the present invention are clearly shown.

In the drawings:

FIGURE l is a front view of a household refrigerator cabinet embodying one form of my invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view of the door seal and the deflector arrangement embodying one form of my invention; and,

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional View similar to FIGURE 2 showing a modied form of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIGURE l there is shown a refrigerator cabinet having a large upper door 22 opening into a large above freezing compartment and a smaller lower door 24 opening into a smaller below freezing compartment. The cabinet is provided with an outer sheet metal shell 26 provided with an upper door opening 28 and a lower door opening which is smaller in size but similar in construction. The upper compartment 3] is enclosed by a sheet metal inner liner 32 which is spaced and insulated from the outer shell 26 by a cast foam insulation 34. In front of the cast foam insulation 34 is the glass fiber insulation 36 extending forward to the door opening 28 and having a density of 5-6 lbs. per cubic foot. The outer shell 26 has a U-shaped reinforcing section 38 within the door opening. Within it is lodged a lower density glass fiber insulation 4t) having a density of 1-2 lbs. per cu. ft. Within this insulation 40 may be located connecting refrigerant conduits 42 and 44 as well as any electrical conductors which may be needed. The portion of the outer shell 26 between the outer surface and the U-shaped portion 38 is formed by the door jamb connection 46. Extending between this door jamb connection 46 and the front edge of the inner liner 32 in a breaker strip 48 of a suitable plastic which may be reinforced by fibers. The front edge of the vbreaker strip 48 has an outwardly turned flange 50 which rests snugly within the front portion of the U-shaped portion 38. At the rear, the breaker strip 48 is provided with a deep groove 52 which receives the front edge of the inner liner 32 and is firmly held thereby.

The door 22 includes an outer pan 54 of sheet metal and an inner pan 56 of sheet plastic provided with a deep recess 58 within which door shelves are located and within a continuing inwardly extending projection or spaced portion 60 extending around the four sides of the door. The refrigerator cabinet is preferably cooled by some form of forced air refrigerating system such as, for example, may be shown in Patent 3,104,533 issued Sept. 24, 1963 or Patent 3,203,199 issued Aug. 3l, 1965. A system similar to such systems is diagrammatically illustrated in FIGURE l in which a fin and tube type evaporating means 62 is located in the rear of the lower compartment in front of the entrance to a centrifugal fan 64 having two upwardly extending outlet ducts, one 66, which discharges into the lower compartment through the upper opening 68 and the second duct 70 which discharges into the upper compartment 30 through the opening 72. The air discharged from the openings 68 and 72 circulates within these compartments to keep the contents cold. The air from the upper compartment 30- returns through a passage 74 to the lower compartment. This air together with the air discharged from the opening 68 then returns for flow through the evaporating means 62 to the inlet of the fan 64.

This circulating air normally has a tendency to circulate at high velocity in the space between the projection or spaced portion 6G of the door 22 and the breaker strip 48 leading to the door seal 76. This door seal 76 is fastened to the overlapping edges of the outer pan 54 and the inner pan 56 of the door 22 by the screws 78. The air circulating at a high velocity adjacent the inside of the door seal 76 passes a high amount of heat transfer between it into the door jamb connection 46 as well as the inturned flange portion of the outer pan 54 of the door. This causes considerable heat leak into the compartment 30. Similar conditions prevail in the lower compartment of the cabinet 20. When the air surrounding the cabinet contains a considerable amount of moisture such as on rainy days or when moisture is generated by food preparation there may be sweating or condensation of moisture on the outer surfaces adjacent the door seals 76. The door seal 76 seals against the door jamb connection 46.

According to our invention, to minimize this heat transfer and to prevent this sweating and condensation of moisture, I provide adjacent the notch 52 generally L- shaped projections 80, integral with the breaker strip 48 extending inwardly from its main portion and the inner liner and located in the rearward projection of the space between the projection or spaced portion 6i) and the breaker strip 4S. This L-shape projection 80 is near the rear of the project-ion 60 and includes one portion extending at right angles to the inner liner 32 and the main portion of the breaker strip 4S, and a right angle flange portion 82 extending rearwardly and having a curved surface 84 which extends in the direction of the shelf recess 58 of the door 22. This curved surface 84 has its greatest inward projection at the front and curves outwardly toward the rear of the ange 82. The projection 80 forms with the remaining portion of breaker strip 48 a curve facing the rear which traps air owing forward along the surface of the inner liner 32 so as to cause it to reverse direction and flow smoothly in a streamline fashion away from the space between the projection 60 and the adjacent portion of the breaker strip 48. This air will then be caused to -flow toward and into the space 58 provided in the door 22 for bottle shelves so as to improve the cooling of the products stored on the door shelves. Since the projection 80 is made integral with the breaker strip 48 it can be provided substantially at no increase in cost. It forms an inwardly extending projecting means which substantially prevents high velocity of circulation of air in the space between the projections or spaced portion 60 and the breaker strip 48 and thereby prevents a substantial amount of heat leak as well as external sweating or condensation of moisture.

In FIGURE 3 there is shown a modication of the invention in which the breaker strip 148 is similar to the breaker strip 48 with the exception that the notch 52 is omitted. In the form shown in FIGURE 3, the inner liner 132 is provided with an outwardly turned ange 133 which fits snugly within the groove 181 provided in the integral L-shaped ange 180 which is shaped like the integral ange 80 and has a rearwardly extending flange 182 with a curved surface 184 which is similar to the iiange 82 and curved surface of FIGURE-2. This arrangement makes double use of the flange 180 and eliminates the need for the notch 52. It also deects the air lowing within the refrigerated compartments away from the space between the projection or spaced portion 60 and the breaker strip 48 and 148. The lower refrigerated compartment preferably has the same door and breaker strip const-ruction with the integral L-shaped ange 82 or 182 upon either the breaker strip 48 or 148 as shown in FIGURES 2 and 3.

While the embodiments of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitute preferred forms, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A refrigerated cabinet including an outer shell pro- 4 vided with a door opening, inner lining means spaced within said outer shell and lining, said outer shell extending to the outer shell around said door opening and enclosing a compartment, insulating means between said inner lining means and said outer shell, an insulated door for closing said door opening, sealing means extendin-g around the door and door opening between the door and v adjacent portions of the outer shell for sealing the enclosed compartment when the door is closed, said door having spaced portions spaced from said lining means extending inwardly of said sealing means, said inner lining means being provided with inwardly projecting deflecting means extending along and adjacent said spaced portions of said door for deecting air circulation within said compartment away from said sealing means.

2. A cabinet as dened in claim 1 in which the inwardly extending deflecting means -is provided with curved de- -iiecting air circulation over the inner face of the door.

`3. A cabinet as defined in claim 1 in which the inner lining means is formed of an inner `liner and a breaker stn'p means extending between the inner liner and the outer shell adjacent the door opening, said deflecting means being provided as a part of said breaker strip means. Y

4. A cabinet as defined in claim 1 in which the inner lining means is formed of an inner liner and a breaker strip means extending between the inner liner and the outer shell adjacent the door opening, said deecting means being formed as an integral flange of said breaker strip means adjacent "the nearest portion of said inner liner.

5. A cabinet as delined in claim 1 in which the inner lining means is for-med of an inner liner and a breaker strip means extending between the inner liner and the outer shell adjacent the door opening, said deflecting means being formed as an integral flange of said breaker strip means adjacent the nearest portion of said inner liner, said integral flange including a longitudinally extending groove receiving the adjacent edge portion of said inner liner.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,266,703 12/1941 Cooper 62-272 2,502,219 3/1950 James 62-272 3,177,678 4/1965 -Facey 62-272 3,240,029 3/ 1966 Wurtz 6'2--273 WILLIAM J. WYE, Primary Examiner. 

1. A REFRIGERATED CABINET INCLUDING AN OUTER SHELL PORVIDED WITH A DOOR OPENING, INNER LINING MEANS SPACED WITHIN SAID OUTER SHELL AND LINING, SAID OUTER SHELL EXTENDING TO THE OUTER SHELL AROUND SAID DOOR OPENING AND ENCLOSING A COMPARTMENT, INSULATING MEANS BETWEEN SAID INNER LINING MEANS AND SAID OUTER SHELL, AN INSULATED DOOR FOR CLOSING SAID DOOR OPENING, SEALING MEANS EXTENDING AROUND THE DOOR AND DOOR OPENING BETWEEN THE DOOR AND ADJACENT PORTIONS OF THE OUTER SHELL FOR SEALING THE ENCLOSED COMPARTMENT WHEN THE DOOR IS CLOSED, SAID DOOR HAVING SPACED PORTIONS SPACED FROM SAID LINING MEANS EXTENDING INWARDLY OF SAID SEALING MEANS, SAID INNER LINING MEANS BEING PROVIDED WITH INWARDLY PROJECTING DEFLECTING MEANS EXTENDING ALONG AND ADJACENT SAID SPACED PORTIONS OF SAID DOOR FOR DEFLECTING AIR CIRCULATION WITHIN SAID COMPARTMENT AWAY FROM SAID SEALING MEANS. 